Family, friends show support for San Francisco dispensary owner shot outside store
Nearly two weeks after Martin Olive, the owner of Vapor Room in San Francisco, was shot seven times outside his store, his family and friends came out to show their support for his recovery journey.
Olive, who was taking a break outside his store on 9th Street, was shot multiple times at point-blank range.
"I had two bullets graze my cheeks, one went up and hit the top of my hair. The other went down and split my earlobe. Four hours of stitches on my cheek, my salivating gland was punctured," Olive told CBS News Bay Area.
Surveillance video from a San Francisco police town hall showed a man, later identified as 34-year-old Chaesarak Chong, on a motorbike approaching Olive while he was taking a break outside.
"He starts pulling up a gun and pointing at me. I initially thought it was like a water gun or a TikTok prank or some stupid thing, but then I saw the seriousness in his eyes. He was very deliberate, and very much wanting to shoot me," Olive said.
"I've got some facial paralysis. I've got some cracked ribs, I've got a cracked shoulder blade. I've got a pierced lung with a chest tube for about a week," he said.
San Francisco police said right after the shooting, Chong walked back into his apartment located right above the dispensary. After two hours of trying to get him to come out, police said he shot at them three times. Body camera video shows officers firing back. The suspect died in his home.
"Oddly enough, the most violent encounter we had was somebody that was living in the apartment here," Olive, who did not recognize the shooter, said.
"My own working theory is that he was planning something bigger, and was just sort of like 'if I can just get one person, I can get more,'" he added.
His staff said they are grateful that their boss is back on his feet, surrounding himself with his loved ones.
"It's amazing to see him make such a quick bounce back from something so horrific," Rose Harless, Vapor Room store manager, told CBS News Bay Area. "It has been really nice to have this day with the community and to receive the response and just the good wishes. And the message that if and when we come back, they will support Vapor Room no matter where we are."
Olive decided to temporarily close the Vapor Room on Saturday. While many questions remain as to what's next, what he does know is that he wants to take the time to step back and heal from this horrifying incident.
"I wanted to close out the memories of this place with positive memories, with community and all the fun we had, instead of these like having final memories of 5 seconds of the worst time of my life," Olive said.
